I've been away from the forums for a while, and have even greatly reduced flying time and participation with my own squad. Things are slowly picking back up though, and I'm looking at making another update to the IL-2 User's Guide and Eastern Skies site in the coming months, despite the fact that my wife and I are expecting the end of May.

I'd kind of like to see the IL-2 guide discontinued (many people don't even realize that it's really meant for IL-2 only and is only coincidentally useful for FB), and adopted for FB and/or PF. However, I'm out of touch with the community and have only limited experience with PF. As I see it, a new FB, PF or FB/PF guide should be 1) contain many elements of the original IL-2 User's Guide but be greatly reduced in scope, or 2) be based on the original guide, be of large scope but either take forever to finish or be released in incomplete steps and maybe still never get finished (this is what happened to the first guide).

Either way, it would be very useful if I could gather some info from all of you what new info you would see as being useful in such a guide. In other words, what things are most useful to concentrate on? Things such as undocumented or poorly/incompletely documented features, more work on complex engine management, more tips on campaigns, more stuff on actual combat, a very general historic overview, etc.

I especially am not aware of most undocumented features. Please be as specific or general as you like! Also, if anyone knows of some places I can look to help myself get oriented, such as new FAQ lists or sites that have popped up since the release of PF, that would be helpful.

Cheers,
Mike

dieg777

04-08-2005, 05:14 AM

Hi mike - first glad to hear your good news-hope everything goes well for you and your wife.

In case you are unaware then the old mudmovers site is now airwarfare and contains a host of information - check it out here

http://www.airwarfare.com/index.htm

another good site is
http://www.il2flying.com/

If you need help then please let me know-
and if I can I will do my best.

TgD Thunderbolt56

04-08-2005, 08:36 AM

Hey Mike! Glad to hear of the pending addition to your clan. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

I still have a printed copy of the original guide and would point you here: http://www.airwarfare.com/tech/tech_lbguide.htm#001%20Security%20Issues It's geared more towards the technical aspects of getting the game running and such, but could help a bit.

TB

Tooz_69GIAP

04-08-2005, 01:36 PM

Well, I reckon you should use the current guide as a template for a new one, and streamline it a bit.

Things like take off's and landing's, especially carrier landings (there are some good video tutorials that have been made for this, and with permission from the creators I'm sure you'd be able to use them), formation flying tactics (we're working on this in the squad just now with the 249th I think, if you've the time to join in on Tuesdays - they seem to have documentation and procedures all mapped out for it), navigation techniques (calculating changes in heading, recognising different landmarks, etc). All that sorta stuff.

As to the compaigns, and the undocumented features, I'm not sure what should be covered, but that should give you a start, and yes, airwarfare.com is a great resource with a ton of stuff to look at.

Hopefully we'll see you around soon Chap!!

And hopefully Mrs Chap is doing fine!

Tully__

04-09-2005, 03:30 AM

There're a few more bit's of my writing that have made it into www.airwarfare.com (http://www.airwarfare.com)'s pages, you're welcome to them. Look in the Guides section for "Multiple version installs" & "Joystick Setup" and in the forums there (Submissions Forum) for a list of many of the console commands.

michapma

04-10-2005, 11:53 AM

Good suggestions guys. Thanks for the feedback. I probably won't include much technical advice, because it is so well covered elsewhere. But I'm sure I'll find some stuff that would go well in a new guide. Carrier landings for sure. I am also considering keeping the discussion of flight theory to a minimum and referring people to the original guide for more detail.

How about some "newbie" suggestions? What kind of things would you like to see in a guide?

EURO_Snoopy

04-10-2005, 05:10 PM

You could drop in to Airwarfare forums where Blacklion has started a new IL-2 guide project with luckyboy and II./JG2_Oesau. I would imagine the original authors of guides on airwarfare would be happy to have their material included in a guide.